There are many electrical connectors, generally referred to as headers, known in which a plurality of contacts in an array are retained in a housing in a plurality of rows, each contact extending from a first contact section exposed at a mating face for mating with complementary contact sections of contacts of another connector, to and including a post section extending to a board-mounting face of the connector from a right-angle bend. Thus a plurality of posts coextend below the mounting face arrayed in rows and are arranged to be inserted into respective through-holes of a printed circuit board for electrical connection to conductive traces of the board. Each board includes an array of through-holes spaced apart in a standard pattern at fixed spacings from each other, and the array of post sections of the connector must coincide with the standard hole pattern in order for the post sections to be inserted into respective holes during mounting of the connector.
One such connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,334 in which the contacts are initially inserted into respective housing passageways while still having a linear shape; the post sections extend from the housing and are thereafter bent to define the requisite right-angle bends. A plate section extends from the housing oriented to be parallel to the circuit board, and as the post sections are being bent, they are urged into channels of the plate section until the posts are fully bent, whereafter the channels are designed having stop features at selected locations along their lengths to locate and hold the post sections in the fully bent position. Such plate section provides positioning of the post sections generally corresponding to the hole array, with the plate section molded with the channels defined at a desired spacing in one direction, and the channel retention features located at desired spacings inwardly from the channel entrances so that the post sections are thus positioned in the orthogonal direction, altogether achieving generally accurate X,Y positioning of the posts.
The connector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,041 includes a separate retainer plate removably mounted on the housing of the connector. The plate includes openings through which the bent tails of the right-angle contacts extend for positioning the tails in a predetermined pattern. An upstanding front edge includes a rib which snaps into a groove into a rearwardly facing surface of the housing as an array of fingers are received upwardly into a slot across the bottom surface of the body of the housing, which engage central portions of respective contacts behind annular collars thereof for retention of the contacts in the housing passageways. Side edges of the plate include arms which snap into grooves on vertical walls of the housing along the rear face to retain the plate on the housing. The round apertures of the plate are said to accurately support and position the cylindrical contact tails close to their ends.
It is desired to provide a connector which precisely locates the post sections of its right-angle contacts.
It is further desired to provide such a connector which is moldable to have a post locating section which assures that the contact post sections extending from the mounting face are able to enter and extend through the board through-holes without difficulty during board mounting of the connector.